Environment

The shocking news that the deer and elk version of mad cow disease, called chronic wasting disease (CWD), is present in Wisconsin's wild white tail deer has meant business is busier than ever for a Montana PR firm. The Kriegel Group represents the North American Elk Breeders Association. The trafficking in farmed elk and deer has spread CWD to a number of states and Canada, and it has spread from farmed animals into wild herds. Wisconsin has hundreds of elk and deer farms, and they are the chief suspects in the spread of CWD to the wild.

"If you've ever given money to an environmental organization ... you might even be a terrorist, or at least an accomplice. At least that's what Nick Nichols seems to think. Nichols views wouldn't matter if he were just another backwoods loser. On the contrary, environmental watchdogs fear he's at the vanguard of efforts to exploit the nation's post-September 11th mood by tarring the entire green movement as extremists. ...

In December of 2000, journalist Hal Herring revealed in High Country News that "the sale of velvet antler from domestic elk in North America is estimated by its proponents to be a $3 billion industry. Korea is still the primary destination for most velvet products, but promoters have created a demand in the U.S. alternative medicine and nutritional supplement market." This lucrative business of grinding up elk antlers and selling them as nutritional supplements amounts to a world-wide uncontrolled experiment in transmitting CWD (also called 'mad deer' or 'mad elk' disease) to humans.

Dan Murphy, webmaster of meatingplace.com, blusters on today about how the General Accounting Office's warning that the US government is failing to adequately prevent an outbreak of British mad cow disease is "a bunch of BS." Says Murphy, "Could it happen here? ... It's possible.